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SPANISH FORK — After more than three years of being detained in the Utah County Jail on a mandatory immigration hold, one might expect Martin Chairez-Castrejon to bolt to the parking lot and hop into a waiting car upon his release Friday afternoon.
After tearful embraces with his children, wife and nephew, he instead dropped to his knees on the sidewalk outside the jail, surrounded by his family, and offered a prayer — expressing his gratitude and asking God for strength moving forward.
His beloved cowboy hat on his head, brought to him by his family to wear home, Chairez said he had mixed motions.
"It's a little sad. It's a long time to stay in jail. I'm happy I get to be with my family now," he said.
Chairez's daughter, Janet, who was in junior high when her father went to jail in early 2013 to serve a 44-day sentence after pleading no contest to felony discharge of a firearm during a fight the previous summer, was first to embrace her father.
Both burst into tears of joy and relief.
"I'm just happy he's finally out so we don't have to struggle anymore," she said.
Chairez's son, Martin Jr., fought back emotion as he thanked his father's attorney for his assistance with the deportation case, which was triggered by the criminal conviction for the gun offense and has been fought in immigration court, the Board of Immigration Appeal and U.S. District Court. He's been held in mandatory detention for 27 times longer than the criminal sentence that landed him there.
"I'm happy. I've been waiting for three years. It's time for us to go home," he said.
Attorney Skyler Anderson says Chairez is unlike any client he's represented in that most people held in jail on immigration holds give up the fight after a couple of months.
But Chairez was committed to remain in the United States, largely because he has nothing to return to in Mexico. A lawful permanent resident, Chairez has lived in the United States since he was 19 years old, much of the time in Utah.
He's 51 now and his two children are American citizens, as is their mother, with whom Chairez has shared his life for 30 years.
One of his last remaining ties to Mexico, his mother, died during his confinement.
Anderson, watching Chairez walk away from the jail with his family, said "it feels good. It's nice when you have a happy outcome."
So often, immigration cases divide families, he said.
"When you see one reunited like this one, it reminds you why you're doing it," Anderson said.
Chairez was released after his family posted $50,000 bond. Anderson filed a writ in federal court in November asking the court to order an individualized bond hearing. After a hearing on the petition in May, U.S. District Judge Jill N. Parrish ordered an immigration judge to conduct the hearing.
On June 30, Immigration Judge David C. Anderson, after holding a three-hour hearing, granted Chairez release on $50,000 bond.
Although Chairez has won his release from mandatory Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention, his deportation proceedings are ongoing.
His attorney said he is optimistic a new Supreme Court ruling will help him fight to bring the proceedings to an end.
It helps, too, that Chairez has used his time in jail productively, earning his GED, regularly attending Alcoholics Anonymous and taking part in Catholic and Mormon church services.
"Anything you can do in jail, he has done, not just for a few weeks going to AA or church. He has consistently, for years, participated in every possible productive resource available to him," Skyler Anderson said.
